Who is in your email list? Should it matter? Heck yes, if you ask me. Two years ago I would have had a different answer. Perhaps something like “as many people as you can.” For the last year, I have spent a lot of time and resources to fine tune who is in my email list and what I do with that list.

I no longer think that numbers are as important as the quality of your list. In other words, who is in it matters and how I communicate with my list matters even more. Why? Because the right people in your list makes the difference between opening or deleting your emails and whether you can actually create a business platform out of your list.

Let me explain further. Most artists I know have a “Sign up for my newsletter” button on their website. It’s a common practice that I also recommend with some tweaking in the wording. Anyway, when someone signs up to our list, they just get automatically added to it.  All they get from then on is a periodic email with news about your art career. Perhaps, not much different than what you’re already posting day and night in social media.  Why your news should matter? What if you could convert that list into a revenue stream?

In order for that to happen, you need to identify who is in your list and how to segment the buyers, prospects and important contacts from the rest of the curious people that will never buy your work. That is a tricky and tedious process. However, when you start figuring it out, it has the potential to produce mayor financial opportunities for you. How do I know? Because I’m doing this with great success and have increased the sales of my work this year from my email list alone.